Every employee has a part to play in improving a company's cyber security.

That was the message from one expert at the latest online event organised by Cyber Cheltenham, the platform representing the town's growing cyber security industry.

Cynam 21.1 turned the spotlight on the threat of data breaches.

And chief privacy officer Colette Hanley spelled out the importance of everybody playing a role in securing a company's system.

She said: "It would be great if everyone in an organisation realises they play a part, it is not just the security team. It takes everyone.

"We need security and privacy to be considered in every part of the an organisation. It is all of our jobs."

She also called on companies to act on security well before they come under threat.

"We need a change in the tone of the language we use," she said. "Let's create a security narrative with our customers.

"Don't let the first conversation you have with your customer be that they have a problem."

"We are often not thinking about security until there is a breach."

Her words were echoed by Ben Aung, chief risk officer at software company Sage.

"Data breach resilience is all about understanding what needs to be resilient and doing a few things consistently and reliably," he said. "Just to do that is a large organisation is very challenging

"The idea you assume a breach will happen is understood but I am not sure it is common on a behavioural level.

"There isn't a silver bullet, a tool or technology which will fix everything. But there are lots of solutions which will help swing things in your favour."

The importance of maintaining safe passwords and not providing information to potential attackers via social media was reinforced by members of the Ladies of Cheltenham Hacking Society.

Cyber defence analyst Helen Major said: "It is something we need to become more aware of in our daily lives.

"We need to be thinking about the cumulative picture which builds with each posts adding to the picture which attackers can use.

"Passwords are important. If you are using the same ones at home and at work, if you are compromised once, you are compromised everywhere."